Susan Jacobson | Sentinel Staff Writer
February 12, 2009

Police say Richard Morales-Marin (left) and Juan Hernandez-Munzalvo confessed to raping an 11-year-old girl. (ORANGE COUNTY JAIL / February 12, 2009)



Two men have confessed to raping an 11-year-old girl who was abducted on her way to school a week ago, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said.

Construction workers Richard Morales-Marin, 23, and Juan Hernandez-Munzalvo, 24, were arrested late Wednesday on charges of armed sexual battery on a child, kidnapping of a child and lewd molestation and were being booked into the Orange County Jail early today.

Every member of the sex-crimes unit had worked on the case since shortly after the child reported the attack Feb. 5. She was pulled into a car at knifepoint about 6:40. a.m. at South Orange Blossom Trail and Lancaster Road, taken to a vacant pink house several blocks away and raped by the men, she told investigators.

Neither suspect has a serious criminal record, sex-crimes Sgt. Richard Mankewich said, although both apparently have immigration problems. They are from Mexico.



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More Orlando Sentinel blogs Investigators received between 300 and 400 tips on the case, but one last Friday led to a house on Citadel Drive, near Oak Ridge Road and John Young Parkway, where the men lived with their wives and other families, Mankewich said. One of the suspects has a young child, he said.

Deputies took DNA samples from men at the house and returned Monday when a woman suggested they come back and take a sample from another man, who turned out to be Morales-Marin.

His DNA was found on the victim, Mankewich said.

Investigators saw packed bags in the back of a black car and called immigration officials, who detained him.

Morales-Marin led investigators to Hernandez-Munzalvo, who was found at the Citadel Drive house, Mankewich said. Both men confessed, saying they were "stupid" and had been drinking, he said.

"We're completely relieved to have these guys off the street," Mankewich said.

Detectives were searching for a purple car the victim described, but it turned out to be a black vehicle that the Sheriff's Office will examine for evidence.

After the attack, the men took the girl back to the spot where she was abducted after getting off a Lynx bus. She sought help at a nearby house, where the residents called 911. Investigators found some of the girl's belongings at the rundown house on Rose Boulevard, where both men used to live.

They rushed evidence through a Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab, making the case a priority.

Susan Jacobson can be reached at sjacobson@orlandosentinel.com or 407-540-5981


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